114. Small Town Big Money
Advantages of Low Cost Of Living
After living in San Francisco for years and then moving to a small town, Sammie and I have the unique perspective of moving from a high cost of living area to a low cost of living area. In this episode, we share some fun stories from trying to be frugal in San Francisco and also share some details of our small town life.
There are three things we cover in terms of the advantages of living in a small town.
Housing Costs: we often try to save money on the little things, when it’s the big ticket items like housing or cars that eat up the majority of our budget. If you’re able to keep your big costs low, saving money on little things like an extra 50 cents at the store matter less. Sammie shares a story about how she was trying to use a coupon to save money on buying ramen, meanwhile, she was paying rent in one of the most expensive cities.
Lifestyle Inflation: living in a small town for us has meant that people around us aren’t spending a ton of money on housing or cars. A car like a Tesla sticks out like a sore thumb and we all know the one person in town who owns one. Meanwhile, we’ve learned that there are some things we were thoughtlessly spending money on like eating out at expensive places that we don’t miss but we do miss having gym glasses. We’ve learned what we really miss from a bigger city.
Phantom Costs: these are costs that are unexpected or unplanned costs that come with a purchase. For example, having a car in San Francisco means paying hundreds of dollars in parking tickets. Meanwhile, in our small town, we never pay for parking and there’s tons of space everywhere for parking.
In our community time, we also share a fun story about dating and our mother.
Are there any benefits to living in a small town or even a big city that we forgot? Let us know in the comments!
Our partner for this episode is Riverside.fm: if you are thinking about starting a podcast, we recommend using Riverside for your audio and video needs. We’ve been using them for two years and have been so impressed by how consistent the quality of our audio and video has been.
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Show Notes:
Cost of living: Why you should choose a cheap place to live by J.D. Roth
Check out interview with The Deconstructed Woman Podcast, a podcast with Elisa and our cousin Jojy. This was such a fun interview where Sammie and I spoke about how we thinking about personal finance and how money is a tool to help us create a life aligned with our purpose.
